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Harris Glenn Milstead is better known by his stage persona – Divine, the larger than life drag queen recognized for, among other things, acting in John Waters films.Milstead’s life – from his humble beginnings as an overweight, teased Baltimore youth to his status as underground royalty – is told in the documentary “I Am Divine,” which will be screened Saturday as part of the QFilm Festival. The film also explores how the late Divine challenged the status quo of body image, gender identity and sexuality. Photo by Clay Geerdes.

LONG BEACH – A documentary on the late drag performer Divine, a series of short films about lesbians and a comedy feature about a gay high school student who wants to be cool are among the 40 LGBT films at the 2013 QFilm Festival.

Long Beach’s longest-running film festival since 1993, the QFilm Festival presents narrative features, documentaries and short films about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

More than 150 films were submitted – the most films ever entered – to the festival, said Ron Sylvester, president and chairman of the Long Beach Gay and Lebian Center.

“We received a lot of films with drag content this year, which was why we created the drag short film program,” Sylvester said. “We also saw a lot of films about the high school experience. It’s the first year we’ve seen the content skewer a little younger.

“The coming out process is starting earlier,” he said. “There are a lot of coming out stories that need to be told in dramas and comedies.”

The festival will open with the Long Beach premieres of the award-winning features “Reaching for the Moon,” about lesbian poet Elizabeth Bishop, and Darren Stein’s comedy “G.B.F.,” starring Megan Mullally (“Will and Grace”), Natasha Lyonne, Horatio Sanz and Jonathan Silverman.

In “G.B.F.,” a fight for supremacy between a school’s most popular girls takes an unexpected turn when another classmate becomes the school’s first openly gay student. As a result, the “gay best friend” becomes a magnet for artificial friendships.

On Saturday, the documentary “I Am Divine” will be shown. It tells the story of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage persona – Divine, the larger than life drag queen recognized for, among other things, acting in John Waters films.

Milstead’s life includes his humble beginnings as an overweight, teased Baltimore youth and then his status as underground royalty. The film also explores how the late Divine challenged the status quo of body image, gender identity and sexuality.

“Interior: Leather Bar” is based on the controversial 1980 film “Cruising” starring Al Pacino as an undercover cop investigating a murder in the NYC gay leather bar scene. The director cut 40 minutes of sexually explicit material from the movie, and it has never been seen publicly.

In their film, Franco and Mathews imagine what might have happened in those lost scenes.

Last year’s film festival was the most successful yet with over 1,200 attendees, a 20 percent increase from 2011, Sylvester said.

Many filmmakers and film cast members will attend the festival for audience discussions after each screening.

Festival events will feature parties and opportunities for attendees to meet and mingle with filmmakers, actors, critics and other industry professionals.